Marketing Team/Meetings/12-9-2008

<gregdek> All right.
 Agenda:
 http://sugarlabs.org/go/MarketingTeam/TODO
 From the top.
* tomeu1 puts greg's word in his pocket
<gregdek> 1. Make the "Get Involved" page amazing.
 So I put together a high-level "Get Involved" page, and it's a start.
 But I'd hardly call it amazing yet.
<caroline_> I think there should be a link to Get involved under Get Help too
<gregdek> Is there any chance we could move the sidebar "Get Involved" up to the top left?
 caroline_: Exactly.
<caroline_> are thre supposed to be images?
<gregdek> We *did* but a "Get Involved" link on the left nav, but we put it at the bottom.  It should be at the top.
 Christian from Pentagram will take this page and create some killer images.
<marcopg> someone (caroline?) made the point that the page seemed to be more about sugar labs organization then about ways to get involved
<caroline_> Greg, this is looking pretty good.
<gregdek> We're waiting on his design of the static Sugar site, which the "Get Involved" page will also be a part of.
<caroline_> the new one is much better
<jt4sugar> can you put link on marketing team page
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<marcopg> oh wow
 this is not the page I had in mind!
<tomeu1> gregdek: do you know if christian has all the text blurbs he was needing?
<walter> oh wow what
<marcopg> looks great
 hehe
 hi walter
 about new GettingInvolved page
<walter> I owe him some text still
<caroline_> I think we also need to assume that people who want to write content and lesson plans will go through this page and we should point them to where tey need to go.
<walter> hello to all...
<caroline_> actually I think the content writer is a good start
<dirakx> i have to send him also some text /me just lurking
<walter> aside: SFC finally issued a press release about Sugar Lans and we are listed on their member projects page!!
<caroline_> Maybe change content writer to Writer then make it clear we need marekting, documentation and educatiol content and how to contriubute in those areas.
<marcopg> walter: awesome :)
<caroline_> Also I'd like to see "Teacher" explictly somewhere.
<gregdek> I'm still uncomfortable with the absence of particular calls to action.
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<caroline_> Agreed, its a deep issue beyond just text. We really don't understand what we want people to do specifically it feels like. how we want them to start engaging.
<gregdek> Yep.
 This is where the notion of "on-ramp" projects is useful.  And I'm still not clear what those projects are.
<tomeu1> erhaps we should see at stuff that people have done after popping into sugar scene
<walter> I think if we link to the per-term TODO pages, we address this issue.
<tomeu1> and try to make more easy to replicate that
<gregdek> walter: I think that helps, yes.
<walter> But we need to flesh out those pages too.
<gregdek> Which is on the team leads.
 So how about...
<caroline_> I also think QA needs to be our biggest onramp. Is Mel here today?
* erikos looks up because of the word QA
<caroline_> Try Sugar and let us know what doesn't work, then let us know what cool things you'd like it to do, then help us make those happen.
* gregdek hrms.
<gregdek> We need better TODO pages, so let's all do our best to make our TODO pages actionable.
<walter> +1
<gregdek> Once we've done that, let's modify the Getting Started page to reflect that.
<erikos> caroline_: about the exact use cases for the QA team (bugsquad, testing group) we meet tomorrow
<caroline_> erikos I'll try to make it. Ping me if you can.
<erikos> caroline_: ok sure - it is 16.30 (UTC)
 once those are defined we have to clean up the wiki for sure
<marcopg> gregdek: I'll try to come up with better TODO for dev this week, and discuss it in the weekly meeting
<gregdek> OK.
 Also: walter, any objection to moving the "get involved" link to above the fold in the left nav, right under "get help"?
<walter> no objection. It is part of the standard template that David designed, so we'll have to make an exception for the front page
<gregdek> Wait... why?  Shouldn't it be in the template?
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<walter> you are right. I misunderstood.
<gregdek> ok.  :)
<walter> I can make the change.
<gregdek> Very good.
<jt4sugar> Need very basic How to on each page for newcomers
<gregdek> jt4sugar: That's what we hope the get involved page will be.
 Moving on...
<caroline_> I think the project has an incredible supply and potential supply of enthusiastic volunteers and a huge need for leaders with intiative.
 sorry,
<gregdek> 2. Create a sponsorship program.
 (sok, caroline_, agreed, I just want to keep moving.)
 So I've got that walter will check in with us on this next week.
<caroline_> agreed!
<gregdek> Unless walter has something to tell us this week, we can move on.  walter?
<walter> nothing new excpet I am spending the rest of the day defining what a local sugar labs is...
<tomeu1> nice
<gregdek> walter: Brilliant!
 All right, moving on:
 3. Elevator Pitch.
 Looks like we've got tons of pitches:
 http://sugarlabs.org/go/MarketingTeam/ElevatorPitch
 We can generate more, we can vote on the ones we have, and so on and so on.
 One thing I *would* like to do:
 Put the winning pitch on the business card.
<marcopg> how do we go about figuring out the winning one? ;)
<gregdek> But I think we've got a bit of work to do yet before we get there.
 marcopg: Exactly.  :)
<caroline_> I wonder if we can get some votes by people not in our community. because how it plays to an outsider seems more important then whether us insiders like it
<gregdek> caroline_: Good point.  What do you suggest?
<marcopg> caroline_: good point
<caroline_> I can mail my TIE school cohort when we are ready that is about 30 people.
<gregdek> That would be great.
<caroline_> maybe mail some outside mailing lists that are friendly?
<tomeu1> sounds a pretty good idea
<jt4sugar> Narrow down to top ten-ask friends
<walter> also, Greg, let's run our ideas past Dennis and Scott
<caroline_> also we can ask people to email friend and family and put up a poll.
<marcopg> I wonder if we should also give more opportunities to the community to write pitches
<gregdek> We can do all of these things.
<marcopg> it was probably asked only in meetings and marketing list
<gregdek> The question is, in what order?
 Well, I did make the pitch announce beyond marketing-list.
<marcopg> walter: who are Dennis and Scott?
<marcopg> gregdek: aaah ok, ignore me then!
<marcopg> was just a little surprised that not many people contributed
<gregdek> Dennis and Scott are marketing pros.  
<walter> Dennis and Scott are volunteers who are professional marketers
<gregdek> walter: I will ask them this week.
<marcopg> ah great
<gregdek> So let's give this another week or two to bake, see how many pitches we can get, and then hand to caroline_ and others to get some independent evaluation, how does that sound?
<caroline_> +1
<walter> when we do ask people, we should take the author names off.
<marcopg> sounds good
<gregdek> walter: Yes, we can do that.
<jt4sugar> +1
>walter< Remind me of Dennis and Scott's last names again?
<gregdek> OK, moving on:
 4. Get everyone's blog aggregated at planet.sugarlabs.org.
 How's this going?
* gregdek looks.
* marcopg has setup a blog
 marcopg didn't yet convince himself to post
<marcopg> (in general going pretty well I think!)
* tomeu1 hasn't managed yet to get erikos and marcopg to _read_ his blog
<gregdek> The blurb is good, but we're flat at 23 feeds since last week.
<marcopg> tomeu1: huh? I do read it :)
<tomeu1> marcopg: ok, then write comments!
* erikos is about to set up his blog as well
<gregdek> So if we're doing it right... pl.sl.o becomes the place where we all go to see "what's interesting" at a high level.
<caroline_> can I get an RSS feed of the aggregation to feed into google reader?
<gregdek> caroline_: Yep.
<marcopg> tomeu1: will do, or will answer from my blog ;)
<unmadindu_> gregdek: it may make sense to add a bit of blurb on the planet page itself on how to get added to the planet
<gregdek> unmadindu_: YES.
<marcopg> there is
 not very visible
<gregdek> Oh, wait, it's there.  :)
<caroline_> Contact the planetmaster to see your blog added here.
<gregdek> That's sufficient, I think.
<unmadindu_> oops - sorry :-P
 yes
<gregdek> So unmadindu_, contact the planetmaster.  ;)
<marcopg> hehe
* unmadindu_ does that
<gregdek> Anyway, blurb is done and that's good, so some progress.
<marcopg> yup blurb is very nice
<gregdek> Moving on...
 5. Business card design.
<marcopg> people like scott and tomeu started to post more also, which is progress too ;)
 (and mchua)
<gregdek> I guess the card design is done, yes?
 Can someone remind me of the url?
<walter> I put a series of images in the wiki...
* gregdek searches the wiki without success...
<gregdek> having a page titles "business cards" might help... hm.
<marcopg> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/marketing/2008-December/000028.html
<gregdek> Ah, good.
* gregdek looks under DesignTeam.
<marcopg> so http://sugarlabs.org/go/DesignTeam
 might be good to have examples of the finished card
 so that people sees what they can get in the end
<gregdek> Why doesn't that page show up under "business cards" when I search the wiki?  Weird.  The text "business cards" is right there.
 Hm.
 Well, those are just images, anyway.
 That's not exactly what I'd consider a "finished" business card, with sample text and so forth.
 But maybe you don't need all that stuff with Moo.
<marcopg> right, that would be cool to have
<walter> The idea is that the image is on one side and text (of some sort) is on the other...
<gregdek> OK.
<walter> With a moo card, you enter the text when you order them: up to 6 lines.
 We could come up with some sort of template.
<gregdek> Yeah, I think that's what we need.
 Another thing:
 Who does Moo serve>
 ?
 Is it global?
<walter> (It is something I asked Christian about, because the format is awkward)
 Moo is a UK company and I think they ship anywhere
<gregdek> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Business_cards
<marcopg> yup
<jt4sugar> Person name on front-getting involved info on back
<marcopg> right there in the homepage:
 MOO ships all over the world. Find out more about Christmas delivery dates
<gregdek> So I'm a bit leery of yoking us to a single vendor, I must say, especially a vendor that has a non-standard card format.
<caroline_> people can still do thier own thing
 I like the nonstandard format, it goes with out out of the box image
<walter> Yeah. Christian was looking into other ways to get cards made, cheaply.
<marcopg> maybe we should provide both moo and something more standard
<gregdek> They can.  I just want to make it *dead easy*.
 marcopg: +1.
<jt4sugar> Template with Fed-ex kinkos
<walter> moo is dead easy
<tomeu1> gregdek: what uses fedora for the ambassadors, etc?
<gregdek> I don't want people to have to think too much about "how should my card look".
 tomeu1: Mostly, Fedora ambassadors print their own.
 From the link that I provided.
<walter> well, let's ask Christian to design a standard card... we have a moo solution already
<tomeu1> oh, sorry
<gregdek> walter: Does Christian have time?
 It would be great for everyone to have their own cards by FUDCon... :)
<walter> I think can do this pretty quickly.
<gregdek> OK.
 I will leave this to walter, who will proxy to Christian.
<cjl> gregdek: where is agenda and what stage are you at . . . and which meeting is this? :-)
<gregdek> cjl: Sugar marketing.
 Agenda at: http://sugarlabs.org/go/MarketingTeam/TODO
 And we just finished our agenda.
<cjl> thanks
<gregdek> New business... caroline_?
<caroline_> I think this falls under marketing.
<walter> FYI, I just sent email to Christian to ask if he has time to make a template
<caroline_> I think teachers are a key demographic to market to.
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<caroline_> Moodle seems to have been sucessful due to teacher involvement
 and if we want to impact education, clearly we need more then Geeks to do it!
 so one thought I had with Mel was "end user" workshops for teachers and parents.
<walter> According to Nicholas, the teachers are the problem... or was that the software is the problem?
<cjl> Caroline_ walter are you guys familiar with http://www.exelearning.org/ ?
<gregdek> (thanks walter)
<cjl> These New Zealanders are up to something interesting, they would be good people to be in touch with, getting exelearning onto the XO would seem to be a perfect complement to having Moodle on the XS
 It fills an important gap in that it is a teacher's tool for authoring content (without needing to know XML) that exports Moodle-compatible packages (also compatible with other courseware-type systems).
<gregdek> So my thoughts:
 1. brilliant idea.
<caroline_> I have a classmate at Harvad with 14 years of teaching experience and teacher professional training experience.
<gregdek> 2. a whole new project.
<walter> @cjl: I am not familiar with it.
<gregdek> 3. a whole new team for governance purposes, perhaps.
<tomeu1> walter: I think someone should introduce the teachers in olpc-sur to NN, he may be surprised
<walter> I am chasing after Lesley University, the leading teacher training college in the US. I want access to their alumni...
<jt4sugar> Teachers are the conduit-must get them on board
<caroline_> my thought is we should get her, or someone, to create and give reusable, intro to Sugar workshops.
<walter> @tomeu: I think he must have meant teachers writing software is the problem :)
<tomeu1> yes, I think SL realizes that teachers have an important role to play
<caroline_> If we charge even a modelst amount for them we should be able to cover the cost of the internship, as she has workstudy money so we only pay 30%.
<tomeu1> heh
<walter> We were making some progress a few years ago: I got FISL to add a teachers day to the end of the conference.
<caroline_> and she speaks some spanish so she can get help from the Sur list.
<jt4sugar> Teacher-Sit beside the Developer program
<walter> My DML proposal--which I haven't heard back on yet--was to do the same at all the major Linux venues
<gregdek> Ok, so a lot of ideas here.
 How do we transform these ideas into action?
<walter> We need to offer a certification... one more reason to get Lesley involved
 Capture them as action items in the TODO list to start
<caroline_> have you talked to Lesley, whats our path on that?
<walter> I am working my way through the bureaucracy.
 I have good people inside getting me to the decison makers
<jt4sugar> Evangeline may have good thoughts on this
<walter> +1
* gregdek is now a mere secretary, waiting for action items to fall out.  :)
<gregdek> In fact...
<caroline_> nod, do you want me to take more action on the Harvard intern or wait?
<gregdek> ...I'm afraid I have to run.
 So let's do this:L
<tomeu1> jt4sugar: aha! you are john tierney
<gregdek> caroline_: Can you boil this down a bit and add some items to the agenda for next week?
<walter> JT would make a great member of the Education team!!
<tomeu1> yup
 jt4sugar: nice to have you around here, btw
<caroline_> wil do
<jt4sugar> Thanks
<gregdek> All right.
 Hate to meet-and-run, but I'm out.
 A reminder:
 If you have any marketing issues you want to address, just ADD THEM TO THE TODO.
* gregdek bangs gavel.
<gregdek> Oh...
 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
 1/2...
* gregdek bangs gavel.